Chasing a Blond Moon(93)
“I thought the customer was always right.”
“Patients are customers only to their insurance carriers. Where’s Nantz?”
“Campaign trail.”
“Timms is going to win,” Vince said.
“We’ll see.”
“You’re not voting for her?”
“Last I knew it was still a secret ballot.”
“You want to come over for lunch?”
“I’m working a case.”
“More like the case is working you,” his friend said.
On his way back to Marquette he got a call from Lorne O’Driscoll.
“Chief,” Service said.
“I left a callback for you.”
“Sorry, I got busy.”
“How’s Ware?”
“Fine. He fell out of his chair.”
“LeBlanc says it was a mini-stroke.”
“His doctor says it’s a mild concussion.”
“You wouldn’t cover for him, would you?” the chief asked.
“Just handle his phone calls.”
“Did Ware talk to you about the senator?”
“We talked.” Was the chief going to thump on him now?
“If Timms wins, Tenni is out when his contract expires. In order to do this she’ll probably have to replace some members of the Natural Resources Commission.”
Eino Tenni was the director of the DNR and appointed by the Natural Resources Commission, not the governor. But the governor did appoint the members of the NRC, and Tenni had proven to be a rubber stamp for Bozian. A new governor would replace commission members with people more attuned to another way of thinking. They would not renew his contract, and would replace him.
“Politics,” Service said.
“You understand that what Ware talked to you about is for the good of the force.”
“Understood, Chief,” Service said, grinning to himself. “I’ve got the job I want.”
“Really?”
“Some days, more this year than last.” Today wasn’t one of them.
“Anything I need to know?”
Service toyed with telling the chief about Siquin Soong and decided against it. “No sir.”
“Keep an eye on Ware, Grady.”
“Yessir.”
“How’s Nantz? She ready for the academy?”
“She’s ready.”
“All right then. The other thing I want you to think about is this: Bozian’s early-out program stripped us of a lot of good people. With all the retirements, and the lag in our replacement pipeline, we’re short in most counties, especially up your way. I’m going to ask that all detectives and sergeants take on other areas in addition to their regular duties. This might last close to a year, but we have to do something. You’ll probably be working the Lake Michigan fish runs this spring.” The weather always sucked during fish runs, but it didn’t stop poachers, and officers were out in the cold soup with them.
If the department’s lawyers hadn’t tanked the state’s voluntary conservation officer program, COs would have VCOs in the vehicles with them, but the VCO program had been eliminated. Many COs could point to endless times where VCOs had kept them from serious injury, or helped make a case they couldn’t have made alone. Management had ignored the pleas. “What about bringing retirees in to cover the holes? They already know the jobs and they’re licensed to carry.”
“Too many legal and civil service barriers.”
“Be good to find a work-around,” Service said. “The people of the state are going to end up paying one way or the other.”
“Point taken,” Lorne O’Driscoll said. “Talk to Ware about it.”
“Yessir.”
He was not five minutes off the phone with the chief, when Lisette McKower called. “This is frightening,” she said. “Me reporting to you.”
“You’re not reporting to me. I’m answering phones—a receptionist.”
She laughed. “How does it feel to have command responsibility?”
“Stop it, Lis.”
“How is he, really?”
“Okay. His doctor says—”
“To hell with what the damn doctor says. You were there. What do you say?”
“I’m not a doctor.”
“Jesus, you’re talking just like a captain.”
“Will my paycheck reflect it?” he asked.
“Not a chance.”
Enough phone calls, he told himself. He called the office, got LeBlanc’s answering machine, and left a message that he would be out of the vehicle. He needed time to think, time alone without interruptions. He pulled the truck into the trailhead of the Claw Lake Snowmobile Trail and parked next to some Japanese red pines.
He sat on a log and lit a cigarette and was two puffs in when two pickups came racing into the small parking lot and skidded to a stop. One man got out of each. They ran toward each other and went down in the gravel, swinging punches and cursing. He ran over to them and grabbed the first arm that came up. Which was when he saw a knife. Then another. Jesus!